Students in Ireland now have the opportunity to expand their skillset with the Expression Studio 4 at our Software4Students.ie site.
Schools in particular will find that huge savings are available on Expression 4 (web, graphics and multimedia content) design software via volume licensing through Sami.ie
Two key questions that arise with this product:
- Will students perceive Microsoft Expression Studio as being a worthy alternative to Adobe CS5 software?
- Will cash-strapped students in Ireland respect the knowledge economy enough and actually buy a discount academic license so as to legally use the software?
As a daily user of both Microsoft Expression and Adobe CS5 design products for Software4Students Ireland, I initially wondered what the latest incarnation of Expression could offer to make it a worthwhile purchase.
Within ten minutes it became clear that once again Microsoft have delivered a set of design tools which are user-friendly and the best value for money around.
The value aspect of this home software range must not be underestimated, especially at a time when schools in Ireland have limited ICT resources.
All For One & One For All
For example, Expression Studio 4 can do the job of Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Dreamweaver for LESS than the home student user cost of Dreamweaver alone.
That doesn’t even take into account the additional software tools it provides such as Blend and Encoder.
At around €104 for the academic license for students at home and family, you simply can’t argue with that kind of value!
Students and the average home user would be hard pressed to make use of all of the innovative tools available in this new package, such is the depth on offer.
All of the Expression Studio 4 applications are designed to work seamlessly with each other.
For example, you might create graphics in Design, use them in Blend to build an online application in Silverlight and then import it into a bigger site that you’ve built in Expression Web.
For budding graphic, multimedia and web designers the Expression Studio 4 toolkit provides everything you need to get started on any web project you can imagine.
All you need is an idea and then it’s time to get creative.
Downloading Demo Software
From Microsoft Office to Expression Studio, most of us have tried a software trial or demo.
Demos are fine but it can be incredibly annoying when your software trial runs out and you’re then having to wait on your software order.
It happens every day and still people keep making the same mistake over, and over… and over.
My advice is to place your software order the same day as you try out the demo version – otherwise it’s too easy to put it off and you end up without access to the software just when you’re in the middle of a project.
Expired software trials is possibly the #1 reason why customers become extremely impatient with software orders.
Waiting on a product you really need to use is likely to have you tearing your hair out!
Overall, it doesn’t take long for the benefits of Expression Studio 4 to make themselves known whether through volume licensing for schools or under a home user student license.
Students can create fantastic web-ready content using Expression Studio 4 and at a price point which is not much more expensive than a newly released console game like Modern Warfare 2.
No prizes for guessing which of them you’ll get more use out of over a three year course.